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Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 285, December 2021/January 2022

Since the ‘spontaneous’ coordinated counter­revolutionary protests in Cuba in July, the United States (US) has stepped up its attempts to overthrow the Cuban Revolution. The Biden administration has introduced new measures to intensify the blockade and has allotted $20m funding for regime change in Cuba. The US’s latest stunt was orchestrating a new wave of protests to take place in Cuba on 15 November. Despite their best efforts, the protests amounted to very little. RIA AIBHILIN reports.

The US was desperately counting on the 15 November protests to do what it has been unable to do for 62 years: to manufacture internal opposition in Cuba and provoke destabilisation leading to the restoration of capitalism on the island. Between 22 September and 15 November there were over 180 statements from US figures and government officials whipping up public support for intervention in Cuba. Bots churned out Tweets every second and used the #15N hashtag to promote the protests. We were promised mass anti-government street action.

Protest preparations

The plans were fronted by Cuban artist Yunior Garcia through his ‘Archipielago’ group created after the July protests. Garcia’s insistence that he was a representative of genuine frustration within Cuba was rubbished when his meetings with US Embassy staff – including Timothy Zuniga Brown, charge d’affaires of the Washington Embassy, and Alexander Augustine Marceil, Cuban Affairs official of the US State Department – were uncovered. Garcia’s collaboration with the notorious Miami-based terrorist Ramon Saul Sanchez was exposed when a telephone conversation between the two was released. Sanchez is linked to the Miami anti-Cuba mafia and has been involved in bombings, kidnappings and murders in his attempts to topple the Revolution.

On 1 November Carlos Leonardo Vazquez Gonzalez, a Cuban doctor and intelligence agent, revealed to Razones de Cuba that while undercover he had attended a series of overseas conferences alongside Garcia. The conferences were sponsored by the US Saint Louis University and were also attended by figures such as Manuel Cuesta Morua. Morua is a Cuban counter-revolutionary on the payroll of the US government agency National Endowment for Democracy (NED). At the end of one conference, Garcia ‘excitedly stated that upon his [return to] Cuba he was going to dedicate himself to the counter-revolution’ and outlined his intention to use ‘peaceful’ protests to provoke the Cuban armed forces into confrontation (Granma, 1 November). Such confrontation could be used as a pretext to justify further intervention. 

On 12 October Garcia applied for a permit to protest, using Article 56 of the Constitution which establishes the right to peaceful protests. His request was declined by the Havana authorities using Article 45 of the Constitution which states: ‘The exercise of people’s rights is only limited by the rights of others, collective security, general welfare, respect for public order, the Constitution and the laws’. The Constitution, written through popular consultation with the Cuban population, enshrines the socialist system. Garcia’s protest was rejected on the basis of his links to US regime change operatives and intention to cause chaos on the day that Cuba reopened itself to international tourism due to its vaccine success (see box below). 

The streets belong to the revolutionaries

As the date approached, it became clear there was little internal support for the protests. Johana Tablada de la Torre, Cuba’s Deputy Director of US Affairs, revealed that just 2% of Tweets promoting the protests were coming from within Cuba. After insisting protests would go ahead permission or no permission, a few days before 15 November Garcia announced he was cancelling the event and would instead take a solitary walk on 14 November. He encouraged Cubans to bang pots and pans and to hang up white sheets. 

When 14 November arrived, none of this happened in any noticeable way. It was the same on 15 November. The masses were not out on the streets protesting. Cubans were more interested in celebrating their vaccine achievements that meant for the first time in almost two years hundreds of thousands of Cuban children returned to their classrooms for face-to-face teaching and the borders were opened bringing international tourists back to Cuba for the first time in months. This is significant for a country dependent on tourism for much-needed currency.

Pro-revolutionary Cubans held a party outside Garcia’s door so he didn’t attempt to leave his home. Cuban authorities would likely have arrested him if he had: revolutionary Cubans will do whatever is necessary to defend their Revolution and sovereignty from US-fostered regime change. When Garcia tried to deliver a speech from his flat window, neighbours climbed onto the roof and lowered a giant Cuba flag to block him from sight. A couple of days later he decamped to Spain. The hashtag of the Cuban counter-revolutionaries #15N has been appropriately revamped as #15Nada.

The world stands with Cuba; The Guardian does not

People came out in support of the Cuban Revolution in 80 cities around the world, but imperialist media outlets spun the absence of mass anti-revolutionary protesters in Cuba into evidence of an alleged ‘crackdown’. 

Imperialist media mouthpieces like the BBC and The Independent attempted to convince us that those collaborating with terrorists and stating their intent to topple the socialist system against the wishes of the majority of the population are ‘activists’ who want ‘democracy’. Revolutionary Cubans exercising their democratic and constitutional rights to defend their socialist system are scary ‘government supporters’. A spiteful article in The Guardian on 16 November quotes one university student to give the impression that ‘young Cubans’ are united in their desire to bring down the government. 

Young people front the Revolution

Young Cubans have been targeted in the US’s social media war on Cuba. Social media influencers based in Miami have encouraged them to take to the streets. In response, a collective of dozens of young Cubans called the Red Bandanas took part in a 48-hour sit in, with political discussion and artistic expression, in support of socialism from Friday 12 to Sunday 14 November in Havana. 

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel joined the Red Bandanas and after a live performance by singer-songwriter Tony Avila ‘Diaz-Canel offered the Red Bandanas a few words of support and encouragement. Filling the air was the gratitude felt for a leader who is sincere, who considers himself a servant of the people, part of the people, just like them’ (Granma, 16 November).

The illegal and genocidal US blockade of Cuba was introduced over 60 years ago with the express purpose of bringing hunger and starvation to foster internal opposition leading to an overthrow of socialism. This ‘two track’ policy has resulted in massive shortages that have been worsened by the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Cuban Communist Party has responded with a reassertion of socialist principles: working hand-in-hand with the Cuban people to address problems. Following the events in July, thousands of young social workers joined the Union of Young Communists brigades to go into communities to help understand and resolve issues Cuban people are facing. What the imperialist media will not tell you, is that young people in Cuba are at the forefront of the Revolution.

Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! No 285, December 2021/January 2022